RICO INDICTMENT FILED ON TWO ADULTS FOR LURING JUVENILE VICTIMS INTO HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION

Posted on 5/19/2017

Defendant: Micaiah Jaron Frank Price and Teah Yvonne Williams

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said, “Not only will our office continue to coordinate efforts with other agencies within the law enforcement system to rescue victims who are forced or coerced into human trafficking, but we will also hold traffickers accountable for exploiting these victims”. Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announced today that the Franklin County Grand Jury has returned a RICO indictment against two persons, Micaiah Jaron Frank Price, age 26, and Teah Yvonne Williams, age 19, for counts including Engaging in a Pattern of Corrupt Activity, Trafficking in Persons – Commercial Sex Acts, Compelling Prostitution, Promoting Prostitution, Commercial Exploitation of a Minor, and Pandering Sexually-Oriented Matter Involving a Minor. Price was indicted on 9 of the 10 counts in the indictment and Williams was indicted on 7 of the 10 counts. The indictment alleges that the Human Trafficking and Prostitution counts in the indictment involved two juvenile victims, ages 15 and 17, between the time span of October 22, 2016 through December 6, 2016. “Sex-for-sale ads were created and posted on backpage.com and the two defendants employed the victims as prostitutes out of approximately a half dozen different hotels in central Ohio in order to personally benefit financially,” O’Brien stated. O’Brien commended the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force for their thorough investigation of this case.